ppl. a. Also 6 Sc. ondekeyt. [UN-1 8.]
1. Not decayed or impaired; not reduced in quality or condition.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, X. xiv. 71. Hys stalwart hart And curage ondekeyt was gude in neyd.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 860. How fierce in fight, with courage undecay’d; Judge if such warriors want immortal aid.
1815. Byron, Hebrew Mel., ‘When coldness wraps,’ ii. Eternal, boundless, undecay’d, A thought unseen, but seeing all.
1869. Dk. Argyle, Primeval Man, IV. 158. Accidents which did not happen to civilized nations so long as their civilization was yet undecayed.
2. That has not begun to crumble or fall in pieces; not physically wasted.
1632. W. Lithgow, Trav., III. 86. The Temple … is a worke … as yet vndecayed.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Tracts (1683), 39. Coffins of this Wood, which he found yet fresh and undecayed.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 198. We find the quantity of iron much the same as in undecayed basalts.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., IV. xlviii. 469. The one in a putrescent and the other in an undecayed state.
1854. J. Raine, Hexham (Surtees), I. Pref. p. lv. In the grave were … chasuble, a tunic, and a napkin uninjured and undecayed.
Hence Undecayedness.
1650. Trapp, Comm. Num. xi. 7. This might be some cause of Moses his undecayedness.
